The instant invention relates to a process and to devices to convey goods from a receiving point to a point of deposit as well as to the reception and the deposit of the goods by means of a vehicle.
Control processes of goods in which the conveying vehicles are in constant contact with a central minicomputer which supervises all vehicles being used are known. The vehicles are in that case assisted to a great extent in carrying out their task by equipment at the edge of the travelling road.
In the textile industry bobbins or bobbin-like goods are used with many different processing machines, must be sorted out by quality, and be conveyed to the stations of subsequent processing. This is particularly the case with ring spinning machines, open end spinning machines, doubling and winding machines as well as with winding machines. Goods produced with these machines are conveyed to machines such as winding machines, packing machines etc. for further processing, or are placed in intermediate storage from which they can be taken for processing. A process and a device for the orderly transfer of cross bobbins is thus known from DE 33 32 899 A1. The cross bobbins produced in a cross bobbin production unit are collected in a buffer magazine at the cross bobbin production unit and are automatically transferred one after the other to a circular conveyor. The circular conveyor consists essentially of a chain to which hooks are attached at regular intervals. The chain runs through a driving device by means of which the chain is moved. Sensors are used to recognize previously selected conveying hooks at which counting of the following hooks is started. The bobbins hanging from the conveying hooks are thus continuously counted. Controllable automatic bobbin depositing devices place the cross-bobbins to be conveyed on free hooks of the circular conveyor. A programmable data processing device remembers the number of the hook and as soon as the hook has arrived at the point of removal the cross-bobbin is removed from the hook.
It is a disadvantage with this system that handling equipment must be provided at each receiving point and point of deposit by means of which the bobbins are placed on the hooks or are again removed from said hooks. This is costly on the one hand, since many handling devices and hooks are required. On the other hand the flexibility of such a system suffers from the fact that no bifurcation from a circular course is possible in such a circular conveyor. Furthermore the length of a circular conveyor is limited by the maximum length of the chain or the maximum conveying capacity of the chain drive.
A trolley conveyor is furthermore known from DE 38 24 874 A1 which is used to convey bobbins. The bobbins arriving from the winding machines are conveyed by vehicles of the trolley conveyor to a downstream processing station. It is characteristic for this system that the bobbins are arranged one after the other in conveying direction and that the bobbin axis is vertical. This makes it possible to use passive grasping elements on the vehicles which react exclusively to a counter-pressure. The slavers are comparable in type and operation to the so-called Casablanca holders. The bobbins are presented for reception according to the placement of the slavers on the vehicles at a precisely defined distance. The holding equipment is lowered and when it has been lowered to a set height the bobbins are connected to the holding device and are moved into an upper position. At the point of deposit the bobbins are again lowered, whereby the holders detach themselves from the bobbins as a counter-force makes itself felt.
The disadvantage with this system is the fact that intelligent handling systems must be installed at the receiving points as well as at the points of deposit to move the bobbins into a precisely defined position or to shift pallets at the point of deposit into the position in which the bobbins are to be set down on the pallet. This means high costs for a system with many receiving and depositing points.
Control of a driver-less conveying system to convey spinning cans is known from DE 35 32 172 A1. The carriage control of this system is in constant contact with the central control unit. The central computer informs the control of the conveying carriage of the arrival at the carder, the reception of the can at the carder, the conveying trip from the carder to the drawing frame and the discharge of the cans at the drawing frame. The conveying vehicle thus executes in every instance the command pertaining to an activity. When the command has been executed the vehicle is again ready for the next command. It is a disadvantage in this system that the central computer must carry a heavy work-load as it must supervise all the conveying carriages in use, so that waiting times may affect the conveying carriages until the next order is received.